Some things to consider about life and living

(Copyrighted material)

Most people want to progress in life. At the same time they want to feel safe and secure and live in a stable environment. In physics a situation that is changing is described as being “dynamic” and a situation that does not change is described as being “static”.

Death is static. On the other hand, by its very nature, life is dynamic because everything is in constant motion. Every moment the entire universe changes. Most of us want to progress in life, and at the same time we want stability. Instability makes us feel insecure. Unfortunately, you cannot progress in a static environment. To achieve progress you need a dynamic environment. Because it is dynamic, life tends to be unstable. So, to feel secure, we need to learn how to achieve stability in an unstable dynamic environment which is constantly changing.

So let us examine if we can achieve both stability and progress in a dynamic environment. To understand how we can achieve stability in a dynamic environment, it will help if we will analyze something most of us are familiar with: a parked car and a car that is moving.

When you want to leave your car for a few hours, you have to stop the engine i.e. kill it. A parked car is stable because it is not moving. It is static and so long as it remains so, you cannot go anywhere in it. However, when you want to go somewhere in the car, you have to start the engine and drive it. A moving car is dynamic. It is alive in the sense that its engine is running just like your heart is beating. The position of a moving car is constantly changing and so is the traffic around it. So how can you achieve stability in a situation that is constantly changing? The answer is control. If you can control the car you can stabilize its movements and steer it to go where you want. So, although a moving car is essentially unstable, you can make it stable and use it to move around safely in it, if you can control it. That is progress.

On the other hand, if you cannot control a moving car, you will experience chaos. Chaos is the result of our inability to exercise control, over our circumstances, in a dynamic environment. It is not the dynamic environment which causes chaos, but the lack of control in a dynamic and unstable environment which cause chaos.

In any dynamic situation there are only two possibilities:

Either you can exercise control and work with the forces that create the dynamic situation. With control, you can achieve and maintain progressive stability within a dynamic environment or,

You lack control over the dynamic forces that are at play. Due to your inability to control the situation you will be overwhelmed by the dynamic forces and instead of experiencing stability and progress you will have face chaos and the resulting disaster.

You should also note that the opportunity to progress further and faster is greater when the situation is more dynamic. So is the danger.

For instance, in a given amount of time, you can travel much farther in a car at 100 miles per hour than you can at 30 miles per hour. But the danger is greater. However, if you can control the car, at 100 miles per hour or even faster, the danger can be minimized and/or avoided.

Likewise, land is more stable than water and water is more stable than air. It is more difficult to sail on water than it is to travel on land and it is more difficult to fly in the air than it is to sail on water. Yet you can haul a lot more cargo on ships than you can on trains and travel much farther and faster by planes than by road transport. But compared to traveling on land, the danger is greater when you traverse the water and even more so when you fly in the air.

So, how can you manage to achieve progressive stability in unstable environments such as water and air? Just what is it that supports ships on water and planes in the air?

People who do not understand the importance of principles and their infallibility, think that it is the water that supports the ships as they plow through the oceans and it is the air that supports planes as they fly through the atmosphere. However, this is not true. What supports the ships on the water and the planes in the air are principles. Principles are invisible. Just because something is invisible, it does not mean that it does not exist. Notice that your mind and thoughts are also invisible. Yet they are very real and powerful. A single invisible thought can cause your invisible mind to become very disturbed. The invisible disturbances in your mind frequently cause very visible disturbances within your visible physical body. Likewise, principles are very real and very powerful. You can get some idea about just how powerful principles are from the following discussion.

It is the principles of floatation that support ships through the medium of water and it is the principles of aerodynamics which support planes as they fly through the medium of air. Ships that violate the principles of floatation sink in water and planes which violate the principles of aerodynamics fall to the ground. Water and air are only facilitators through which the principles work. The actual support is provided by the appropriate principles. Principles are very dynamic and powerful. There is no limit to their power. As long as you follow the principles and do not violate them, they will support you.

To get some idea about how powerful principles are, please consider that there is no air or water in space. So what is supporting our earth as it is traveling through space on its journey around the sun? Invisible principles are supporting earth which is several billions of time heavier and larger than any man made ship or plane. So even though the earth is supported by nothing but invisible principles, because we do not think about it or are unaware of the reality of what is supporting our earth in space, we feel more secure on earth than we do on water or in the air. It is nothing but principles that are supporting the fabric of space and all the galaxies within it.

It is important to note that you cannot control the environment in which you are. You can only control yourself. For instance, when you drive a car in traffic, you cannot control the traffic. All you can do is control the car you are driving. In order to control the car, you need to first control yourself. Likewise if you are the captain of a ship, you cannot control the ocean. All you can do is control the ship and to control the ship, you need to control yourself. The same thing is true when you are flying a plane. You cannot control the atmosphere. You can only control the plane and to do that, you need to first control yourself.

Now let us apply the above examples to life and living.

Life is a journey. To better appreciate this fact, let us examine some of the characteristics of a journey.

A journey has a beginning and a journey has and end.

When you begin the journey, you enter into a car, train, plane or ship etc.

At the end of the journey you leave the vehicle in which you were traveling.

Similarly, you begin the journey of life on earth, when you take birth into a physical body. At the end of your journey of life, you leave your physical body. Thus, your physical body is nothing more than a vehicle. A vehicle of life. A vehicle you are using to journey through eternal life in this universe.

The reason you do not recognize that your physical body is merely a vehicle for you to use to complete your journey of life eternal is your attitude towards the vehicle of life. Because you do not know who or what you really are, you identify with what you know. You do not know your soul but you do know your physical personality. So you identify with it and think that you are your human personality. Therefore instead of using your human personality to serve the real you, you spend your life trying to satisfy the demands of your human personality. This is the crux of the problem.

Notice that you do not identify with the other vehicles you use. You do not think that the car is you or that you are the train, the plane or the ship in which you are traveling. You realize that these are only vehicles which you are using to travel from one point to another point on earth. This is because they are not alive whereas your human personality is alive. You will know who you are, when you discover just what it is that is keeping the human personality alive.

To make the most out of this life, you need to first discover your true nature and who you really are. The first thing you need to do is to change your attitude towards your human personality. You should recognize that you are not the human personality through which you are journeying in this physical realm.

To begin to know who you really are, you need to recognize that the human body and mind are merely vehicles which the real you, your soul or atman, is using to travel in time through this physical universe. The fuel which keeps your physical personality alive is the life principle called prana. Do not identify with your physical personality. Your human personality is merely an instrument through which you can communicate with the rest of the visible world. If you learn how to use your human personality, then you will also be able to communicate through it with the invisible universe which is the source of the visible universe. Therefore, it is essential that you learn how to use it properly.

We mentioned earlier that life is dynamic. You cannot control what happens in the ocean of life. However, you can control how you respond to what happens. 90% of the pain and stress you experience in life is a result of how you respond to the situations you face. You cannot control the situations life presents to you. But you can control how you deal with the circumstances. Most of us react to the actions of other people and circumstances. You should learn to act and not react.

You cannot control the circumstances you have to face. You can only control yourself. When you control yourself, you can act to influence the situation you face positively. When you react, you are not in control either of yourself or the situation you face. So, when you react, you will generally be at the mercy of forces which are beyond your control. The question arises: “How can you act and not react?”

Before you can act, you need to remain calm. To remain calm, you need to be able to control your mind and body. Calm is constructive. Agitation is destructive. You should avoid doing anything when you are agitated. Why? Because when you are disturbed, your mind and emotions are out of control.

Every moment the entire physical universe changes. So what was not possible a moment ago can be possible now. Because it is insecure and full of fear, the human mind likes stability and certainty. We want to know exactly what it is that we should do in any given situation. We like to think that if we knew exactly what the right thing to do is, then we will do it and everything will be just fine. Unfortunately that is usually not the case. Because of its inherent tendencies, the human mind comes in the way.

Among other topics, the book on karma describes:

How you create karma without intending to do so.

The characteristics of the human mind and how the human mind creates the human ego with which you identify.

Why you are born with nothing and cannot take anything physical with you when you die.

Why you have to totally surrender to the Divine to be Born Again

Just what is Living Silence.

How you can become free from karma.

In addition to the above, you will learn:

The principles which will enable you to empty your mind of all the burdens you are carrying within it.

The principles of karma yoga and

How to receive guidance from God through the circumstances in your life.

If you will practice these principles in your daily life, you will experience peace and will be able to control your mind and emotions under the most stressful situations. You will be able to remain calm even when others all around you may be disturbed. Thus, you will be able to achieve stability and remain stable in an unstable environment. When you achieve this state of being, you will automatically become a very powerful person and others will seek to be near you in order to bathe in the atmosphere of peace which will flow through you and surround you.